The Silvas Guild camp was quiet, save for the crackle of the dying fire and Duriz's heavy snoring. To the others, this was just another night in a low-tier zone, praying their gear held together for one more haul.
To Aris, it was a data goldmine.
He sat cross-legged near the edge of the wagon, his Air Screen dimmed to a faint glow that only he could see.
[ USER: ARIS VERATIS ]
[ LEVEL: 12 ]
[ MANA CAPACITY: 1,400/1,400 ]
[ STRENGTH: 22 ]
[ AGILITY: 28 ]
He had gained eleven levels from a single stone throw. In this world, a normal recruit would take three months of grueling guild hunts to reach Level 12. Aris had done it in three seconds.
The multiplier is real, Aris thought, his fingers hovering over the "Skills" tab. "But if I level up too fast in front of Klynn and the others, the System's auto-balance might flag me as a corrupted entity."
He looked at Mera Griph, who was sharpening her dagger nearby. She was Level 15, the "prodigy" of this small group. She caught him staring.
"What are you looking at, Newbie?" she asked, her voice sharp but not unkind. "Scared the wolves are coming back for a snack?"
"Just wondering how you got that notch in your blade," Aris replied.
Mera looked at her dagger, a flash of pride in her eyes. "A Rock-Crab in the Southern Shallows. Most scouts would have run, but I timed the parry. That's how you grow in this world, Aris. You take hits, and you hit back harder."
Aris nodded, though he knew the truth. In the "Pre-Patch" code, that Rock-Crab had a blind spot in its left ocular joint. Mera didn't need to take the hit; she just didn't know how to read the frame-data of the world.
"I'll remember that," Aris said.
"You'd better. Klynn says we're heading to the Iron-Root Dungeon tomorrow. It's an E-Rank crawl, but for someone like you, it might as well be a death trap. Stay behind Duriz and keep your mouth shut."
Aris went back to his screen. He didn't plan on staying behind anyone for long.
He opened a hidden sub-menu:
[ LOCAL AREA NETWORK ].
The map expanded. The red signature he had seen earlier—the one he suspected was
Enma—was stationary now. It was located in the Cursed Cathedral, a Level 80 Restricted Area that shouldn't even be accessible to players for another six months.
"If he's already at the Cathedral, he's at least Level 100," Aris calculated. "I'm falling behind."
He stood up quietly, grabbing his basic scout cloak.
"Where are you going?" Regra asked, poking her head out from the wagon.
"Nature calls," Aris lied.
He walked past the perimeter of the camp, disappearing into the thick shadows of the Iron-Root forest. Once he was sure he was out of earshot, he stopped.
The air around him began to hum.
"I can't wait for tomorrow's dungeon to level up," he whispered to the empty woods. "I need to hit Level 20 before sunrise."
He raised his hand, and for the first time, he didn't just manipulate a stone. He reached into the "Source Code" of the forest itself.
[ SKILL UNLOCKED: MANA SIPHON (RANK: UNKNOWN) ]
A pulse of turquoise light rippled out from his feet. The nearby trees didn't die, but the ambient mana floating in the air—the energy that fueled the local monsters—began to spiral toward him like a vacuum.
In the distance, a pack of Level 8 Forest Spiders screeched in confusion as their strength was suddenly drained away.
Aris watched the numbers on his screen tick upward.
*Level 13... 14... 15...*
By the time the sun began to peek over the horizon, Aris Veratis walked back into the Silvas camp. He looked exactly the same—a scrawny, E-Rank scout in dusty leather.
But beneath the surface, his Air Screen was pulsing a violent, silent gold.
[ LEVEL: 21 ]
[ STATUS: LIMIT BROKEN ]
"Wake up, kid!" Klynn's voice boomed across the clearing. "Dungeon opens in an hour. Try not to trip over your own feet today."
Aris smiled. "I'll try my best, Captain."